Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Social Experiments. In International Encyclopedia Of The Social And Behavioral Sciences, Larry Orr, Rebecca A. Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Book Review: Fighting For Reliable Evidence, By Judith Gueron And Howard Rolston., Rebecca A. Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Fighting for Reliable Evidence is an incredibly powerful book, full of information that graduate schools don’t teach and that would take a lifetime to learn on the job. Readers shadow the narrators—Judith Gueron, one of the founding employees and now President Emeritus of MDRC, and Howard Rolston, a long-time senior civil servant in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—as they share their intersecting professional journeys in service of improving the welfare of our nation and its people. Over a 40 year period that began in 1974, a small band of warriors from the philanthropic, policy, and research communities, …

Policy Should Focus On Better Contraception, Not More Marriage., Rebecca A. Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Powerup!: A Tool For Calculating Minimum Detectable Effect Sizes And Minimum Required Sample Sizes For Experimental And Quasi-Experimental Designs, Nianbo Dong, Rebecca A. Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

This paper complements existing power analysis tools by offering tools to compute minimum detectable effect sizes (MDES) for existing studies and to estimate minimum required sample sizes (MRSS) for studies under design. The tools that accompany this paper support estimates of MDES or MSSR for 21 different study designs that include 14 random assignment designs (6 designs in which individuals are randomly assigned to treatment or control condition and 8 in which clusters of individuals are randomly assigned to condition, with models differing depending on whether the sample was blocked prior to random assignment and by whether the analytic models …

The Relationship Between Child Care Subsidies And Children’S Cognitive, Laura Hawkinson, Andrew Griffen, Nianbo Dong, Rebecca Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Child care subsidies help low-income families pay for child care while parents work or study. Few studies have examined the effects of child care subsidy use on child development, and no studies have done so controlling for prior cognitive skills. We use rich, longitudinal data from the ECLS-B data set to estimate the relationship between child care subsidy use and school readiness, using value-added regression models as well as parametric and non-parametric models with propensity score matching. Compared to a diverse group of subsidy non-recipients in various types of non-parental care as well as parental care only, we find that …

Kids Having Kids: The Economic And Social Costs Of Teenage Pregnancy, 2nd Edition, Saul Hoffman, Rebecca Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

Kids Having Kids consists of a background study of trends in adolescent childbearing, seven coordinated studies focus on particular dimensions of the consequences of adolescent childbearing, a summative assessment of costs of adolescent childbearing, and a review of what is known about the effectiveness of teenage pregnancy prevention strategies.

The Case For Early Targeted Interventions To Prevent Academic Failure, Irma Perez-Johnson, Rebecca Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

The persistent achievement gaps among children of different race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the United States represent an issue that has commanded public, policy, and research attention on and off for about 100 years now, and it is once again in the forefront of policy-making agendas. Debates nevertheless abound on the most promising and cost-effective strategies to address the problem. We examine critically the available evidence on the benefits and costs of early childhood education and conclude that early, vigorous interventions targeted at disadvantaged children offer the best chance to substantially reduce gaps in school readiness and increase the productivity …

Interventions Intended To Reduce Pregnancy-Related Outcomes Among Adolescents., Lauren Scher, Rebecca Maynard, Stagner Matthew

REBECCA A MAYNARD

This review synthesizes the evidence on the effectiveness of programs aimed at reducing sexual risk-taking among teens. By including only rigorous randomized controlled trials that meet additional methodological criteria, it uses meta-analytic techniques to estimates the average effects that interventions have on reducing sexual experience, unprotected sexual activity, and pregnancy rates. It focuses on four main types of interventions: (1) one-time consultations; (2) sex education programs with an abstinence focus (and no contraceptive focus); (3) sex education programs with a contraception component; and (4) multi-component youth development programs. In total, this review presents findings based on over 37,000 youth who …

The National Supported Work Demonstration, Hollister Robinson, Peter Kemper, Rebecca Maynard

REBECCA A MAYNARD

In this edited work, leading social scientists examine the intent, design, and administration of the Supported Work Demonstration programs in 10 cities, serving large numbers of long-term welfare recipients, ex-addicts, ex-offenders and young school dropouts. Eligible individuals were randomly assigned to the offer of the supported employment experience or to a business as usual control condition. The study samples were followed for up to three years following enrollment. The findings are synthesized through a comprehensive benefit-cost analysis.